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04-07-2008, 08:12 AM
I usually do my own alignment and it can be a pain sometimes. I like to do it so that I can experiment with different settings -- which would cost a fortune to do through a shop.
I enjoy doing it myself, but you have to be careful especially with the rear toe, to get it just right. If you end up in a rear toe-out under braking situation in a rear engine car, especially yours, life will get exciting fast! Take it easy esp in braking zones when you first test out the new alignment until you're sure it's right.
As you are learning to do this, you may want to consider having a shop verify your settings after you complete your alignment just as a sanity check. If you call around some of the local tire places and chain repair shops will do a printout of your alignment settings for free!
Always do the corner balance first. There are some articles about doing it on the Internet, but the real key to the whole thing is thinking about the car like a table with 1 leg short. It will wobble in the opposite direction, and those two legs it sits on when it wobbles have the most weight.
That's about how it works -- forget about trying to change side to side weight, you can only do that by moving weight in the car -- you can't do it by alignment. So if the FR and RL added together are higher than the FL and RR added together then you need to lower the former or raise the latter.
The other pieces to consider are your overall ride height and rake fore/aft. In terms of front ride height, ideally the tie rods will be parallell to the ground to minimize the changes of toe with ride height. You can set the base ride height first by measuring from the ground to suspension points (not to the fender like some people do). Once that is done, do the corner weights.
Don't forget to put weight in the driver's seat to simulate you in it.
After corner balance set your camber. After camber is toe. Camber is the most annoying thing to check and you need a good flat surface or a good gauge that will compensate.
I don't know about alignment settings on that car specifically -- I could guess but someone knows for sure. You may want to consider reaching out to one of the guys who race SC's, or to Larry who is our club alignment expert.
I enjoy doing it myself, but you have to be careful especially with the rear toe, to get it just right. If you end up in a rear toe-out under braking situation in a rear engine car, especially yours, life will get exciting fast! Take it easy esp in braking zones when you first test out the new alignment until you're sure it's right.
As you are learning to do this, you may want to consider having a shop verify your settings after you complete your alignment just as a sanity check. If you call around some of the local tire places and chain repair shops will do a printout of your alignment settings for free!
Always do the corner balance first. There are some articles about doing it on the Internet, but the real key to the whole thing is thinking about the car like a table with 1 leg short. It will wobble in the opposite direction, and those two legs it sits on when it wobbles have the most weight.
That's about how it works -- forget about trying to change side to side weight, you can only do that by moving weight in the car -- you can't do it by alignment. So if the FR and RL added together are higher than the FL and RR added together then you need to lower the former or raise the latter.
The other pieces to consider are your overall ride height and rake fore/aft. In terms of front ride height, ideally the tie rods will be parallell to the ground to minimize the changes of toe with ride height. You can set the base ride height first by measuring from the ground to suspension points (not to the fender like some people do). Once that is done, do the corner weights.
Don't forget to put weight in the driver's seat to simulate you in it.
After corner balance set your camber. After camber is toe. Camber is the most annoying thing to check and you need a good flat surface or a good gauge that will compensate.
I don't know about alignment settings on that car specifically -- I could guess but someone knows for sure. You may want to consider reaching out to one of the guys who race SC's, or to Larry who is our club alignment expert.